For those wondering what in the living hell happened to the BFCS 2nd Annual Awards, we are taping our announcement in the coming week, which should release soon thereafter. We didn’t want the Oscars to steal our thunder. We are very dramatic like that.

TV Shows Watched: Starfleet Academy: S1E9 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Beast And Me: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, High Potential: S2E12 (Disney Plus) with audio description, 56 Days: S1E2 (Amazon) with audio description, The Hunt: S1E1 (Apple) with audio description, and Abbott Elementary: S5E10 (Disney Plus) with audio description

Starfleet Academy- The show is still like the actualization of a worst case scenario for a Star Trek show, but for the most part, the audio description is fine. I will say, the more this show devolves into that young adult/CW vibe, the less interested the audio description seems to be in shaping the science fiction of the show, instead often treating it more like Gossip Girl in Space. In this episode, Caleb finds his mom after remembering the code his mom told him in episode 1, and sets off to find her, pulling his friends into the mix.

The Beast And me: Finished. In case I don’t review, the audio description has been really solid across the board. I still remember the gooey use of concave in the last episode. I suppose they could do a second season if they were desperate, but let’s let the sleeping dogs lie. Matthew Rhys really gives an explosive performance in the final episode, which stands in stark contrast to the first thing I remember him from, playing the quiet gay brother in Brothers and Sisters. He’s quite terrifying in this show.

High Potential- So, we could have done a bit more with the description when we get to the room full of the bodies. I feel like there was little to no attempt, yet our leads comment on them, and are at least a bit unnerved.

56 Days- it at least has a slightly different vibe to it, as we see this VERY complicated relationship evolve,and the reasons behind things. The audio description here is solid, making some moments feel creepier than others.Toward the end when he was lying in bed with the syringe next to him, I thought for sure, something nefarious was being built up, but not really. I am not really at the point where I would necessarily recommend or not this show, though I’m leaning fresh here.

The Hunt- Apple’s new International drama is about a group of friends that go hunting and something horrible goes awry. Then they have to keep the secret. So, the happy/sad thing here is that the show is French, and it does have audio description, which comes along with a very nice and tight dub. I normally would have no problems, except I really love Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds, Beginners, Now You See Me). Because she’s able to do both languages, she has fans likely who know her work in American cinema, though it is someone else doing her voice here. It’s very much a mostly me problem, because only a teeny tiny percent of the people who would watch this with audio description would know or care, but it does make me wish that Laurent had dubbed herself. I know that’s weird. I know. But I still die on the hill that she should have received an Oscar nomination for Inglorious Basterds.

Abbott Elementary- So I did watch this with a sighted person, and there was a reference that got lost, though I’m not sure the AD company would have had any idea what to do with it. At the end of the episode, Mr Johnson raises his fist in the air, which I’m told, looked a lot like the black Olympians that did the same gesture at the 1968 Mexico City medaling ceremony. Their black power fist raise is iconic, and it meets the moment here, but I can’t see an AD company for a show as mainstream as Abbott elementary having the chutzpah to actually say mr Johnson raises his fist in the black power salute”, so to a sighted audience, something that is a visual callback, unspoken, to us would have to be spoken, which is what makes it taboo. It’s this weird double standard we live in, and especially with Disney that has intentionally diverse casts, but no mention of race/ethnicity in the AD tracks. Disney was never going to allow the black power fist to be verbally said aloud to blind audiences, but also has no problem standing behind it being a visual reference, creating an uneven dichotomy between blind and sighted audiences. there’s no perfect solution here, and because Abbott barely has functional audio description to begin with, I’m surprised they even managed to point out the fist raise at all. It is interesting, because as we often watch TV with friends and family, it does make you wonder how many households out there were split with the sighted getting the reference, and needing to explain it. Hell, its possible that without any race/ethnicity description given to the characters to begin with, you may not even know Mr Johnson is black (I don’t know how), but this whole thing could be a shock for you. Sometimes, talking about the little intricacies of AD means falling down a lot of rabbit holes.